Rebel
by DD Leader Dark Heart of Water
Summary: Bound by ridiculous rules and harsh punishments, the younger residents of Shibuya have lived in constant fear of accidentally breaking a rule. That is, all but ten. Driven by curiosity, anger and hope, they strive to find out what is beyond the gates and to bring whatever the Batsu section fears so much to Shibuya and make their home free again... before it's too late.
1. Worth Dying For

_DD: _So. Another new story. This used to be big news for me and now I'm on my forty third fanfiction… I should do something special if I reach a hundred! Anyway, this was inspired by some townships that I saw when I was in Africa. Not that the rules in this or anything are similar; just the houses gave me the idea.

* * *

**Rebel  
Chapter One  
Worth Dying For**

* * *

_The most dangerous phrase in the language is 'we've always done it this way' - Anonymous_

* * *

"Takuya-onii-chan?"

Kanbara Takuya sighed, eyes slowly cracking open to see his younger brother – Kanbara Shinya – crouching down beside him, "What?"

"It's time for school," his brother murmured, already in his school uniform.

The uniform consisted of grey trousers, a white shirt, a black tie and a sleeveless jacket with the owner's family name, a crest of their choice, their code and the name of their area of housing stitched onto the back, Shinya's crest being a mole while Takuya's was a dragon.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah; I'll be there in a minute," Takuya mumbled, turning over in his 'bed'.

"Okay, but I'm telling Yutaka-senpai that you're the reason he'll be late for school," Shinya sang happily, skipping outside.

"Alright; I'm up!" Takuya immediately jumped up, not wanting to face the wrath of Himi Yutaka again.

He quickly pulled on his own uniform, taking a brief look around his house while doing so. It was made of a flimsy material somewhat similar to tin that had just been nailed together, the simple wooden door having taken the most time to make.

Attached to the walls were long benches and on the floors were the 'beds' that Takuya and Shinya had been sleeping in; a duvet spread over the scratchy carpet with a second duvet on top and a jacket for a pillow. Their parents were in a bed just like it.

It may not have been the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst; the Kimura family were proof of that.

"Sayonara!" Takuya called, running outside and through the alley of houses almost identical to his until he reached a small slope of grassy sand where three figures stood waiting.

"Takuya-onii-san, you came!" came the shout of joy from Himi Tomoki, the group's youngest friend.

Gulping slightly, Takuya glanced around, "Yutaka-senpai isn't here, is he?"

"Shinya-kun told him you'd be late, so he went to school," Shibayama Junpei shrugged.

"Thank gods," he sighed in relief.

"You know he'll still be angry after school," Kimura Kouichi shook his head slightly. "He was waiting for you for more than fifteen minutes."

"Oh, crud," Takuya whined. He then turned to Kouichi, "How's Tomoko-san?"

"She's getting better," he smiled slightly, although his eyes betrayed his true worry about his mother's bad health. "She'd be better if we weren't _here _though."

Everyone winced. They all knew the small tin house that Kouichi and his mother lived in.

The one-roomed building made their houses look large, and the only duvet was used to cover Tomoko, so Kouichi was left sleeping on the floor with nothing to shield him from the cold. There were no benches on the walls or cushions and the only reason that Kouichi had enough clothes to last him a week was because Yutaka had given the younger boy some of his old clothes that were still too large for Tomoki.

"It'll be better one day," Takuya comforted as Kouichi sighed, nodding slightly before turning to the school building.

They stood there, staring at the small, grey, stone establishment for a moment before hearing the bell ring and sprinting towards either that building or the smaller one next to it, "_Crap_!"

* * *

"Kouji? Kouji?" a voice penetrated the eleven year old's dream, shaking him awake. "Wake up, buddy."

"Hm?" Minamoto Kouji slowly moved so that he was leaning on his elbow, rubbing one eye with the palm of his hand, his long, raven hair hanging loose around his shoulders. "What is it?"

"Time for school," Kamakura Katsuharu explained as Kouji nodded and climbed out of his sleeping bag, which was laid down beside his father and step-mother's small double bed.

Both the Minamotos and Kamakuras shared the small room, two beds for the adults being crammed into either corner while their children slept in sleeping bags on the floor. Between the beds was a single wardrobe which was used by everyone, and at the foot of each bed was a small cabinet that was used for books, a small television that had taken three months of saving to get and the occasional picture.

Sighing, Kouji pulled his hair into a low ponytail, securing it with a blue-and-grey tiger-striped bandana before pulling on his uniform, which consisted of grey trousers, a crisp, white shirt, a blue tie and a black leather jacket with his family name, a crest of his choice, his code and the name of his building on the back.

The jacket was a way for the authorities to differentiate the people who lived in the tin houses from the ones who lived in apartment blocks. It was also a way to differentiate the school students from one another.

Kouji sighed. Minamoto, a wolf, Hikari Section and… his code. B704.

That's all he was to the authorities; a number, but it was a way to track him down.

He snuck a glance at Katsuharu's jacket. Kamakura, a tiger, Hikari section, G342.

"Come on," he muttered, grabbing his three-years-old school bag. "Let's go."

The two quietly left the room, careful not to wake the sleeping adults before meeting their friends in the hallway.

"We were about to leave you behind," Hasegawa Chiaki sighed, arms crossed over her shirt. The girls' uniform was basically identical to the boys', save the fact that they wore tight mini-skirts and their jackets were slightly on the brown side.

"Pretty boy decided to sleep through the alarm," Katsuharu snorted, causing Kouji to growl.

"I wouldn't talk if I were you; doesn't he have to wake you up most of the time?" Orimoto Izumi raised an amused eyebrow as Katsuharu blushed.

"So did you guys study for the history test?" Nara Teppei inquired, getting nods from everyone… except Kouji. He frowned, "You studied too, right Kouji?"

"No," he snorted, getting shocked looks from everyone.

"But," Yamanaka Teruo shook his head in disbelief. "If you fail…"

"I don't care," Kouji growled. "It's better than being stuck here."

Then, as though realising what he just said, he blinked, "No offense; I don't mean you guys. I just mean… this place."

"We know, Kouji," Chiaki sighed, pulling the elder raven into a one armed hug. "We know."

* * *

"Finally; we're done!" Junpei sighed in relief as he walked out of the school building in front of his three friends.

"That test was impossible…" Takuya groaned, smacking his forehead as Kouichi glanced at him sharply.

"You did study for it, didn't you?"

"_Hell_ no," Takuya sneered, hands clasped behind his head in a stretch.

"But if you fail," Kouichi began only to be cut off.

"I don't care if I fail or not," Takuya snarled, surprising the trio. "The rules are completely pointless anyway! Why should we have to leave the town if we fail? Why do we have to stay in the town if we pass? Why is there a curfew? You shouldn't have to half kill yourself just to stay here for a while. Why do they make you do that?"

"I don't know!" Kouichi growled, equally frustrated. "All I know is that I'm all Okaa-san has, and if I have to leave, she'll work herself to death."

Takuya normally would have apologised at that stage, but he was more outraged than usual, "Exactly; it shouldn't have to be that way!"

"Takuya's right," Junpei agreed. "We don't even know all of the rules; nobody does! Half of them are just made up on the spot! We can't just spend our whole lives being so careful to avoid being punished that we forget how to live!"

"There's no other way, though," Tomoki lowered his head so that the brim of his orange pumpkin hat shadowed his eyes. "We don't have any money for outside, and the only way we get out is if we fail. If we do anything else wrong… we just get punished."

Takuya sighed, glaring at the ground, "That doesn't mean its right. Kouichi, you got pulled in there just for picking up two yen to give back to an old woman! How is that fair?"

"To be fair, they might have thought I was stealing it," Kouichi mumbled, left hand subconsciously pulling the sleeve of his shirt down so that it covered one of the large bruises that had been inflicted upon him no more than three days previously.

"Bull_shit_; we were with you!" Takuya yelled, surprising the trio again; the goggle-head rarely ever swore in front of Tomoki – who he saw as a second younger brother. "The only way they could have thought you were stealing it was if they went blind and deaf the second after you picked it up! You freaking told her that she dropped it!"

"Uh…" Kouichi sighed, dropping his cobalt gaze to the sandy earth beneath them.

"And Junpei, you and that Nara kid in the Hikari section were punished because you stopped some other kid in the Kasai section from bullying Tomoki!" Takuya ranted.

"We know, Takuya!" Kouichi gritted through his teeth in a voice that was louder than his usual almost-whisper. "But just because we know it isn't fair doesn't mean that it's going to help anyone!"

"…I guess you're right," Takuya mumbled quietly.

"Hey, guys," Tomoki looked up, trying to brighten the mood. "There's that new arcade in the Mise section; do you want to check it out? It's on me; I just got my pocket money."

"Sure, but save your money," Takuya smiled warmly. "I've still got some of mine from last month."

"And I got mine last week," Junpei added, "so I can cover Kouichi."

"No; I still haven't spent mine yet," Kouichi smiled, proud to have money for once.

"Wait… we all have money?" Takuya looked around fearfully in a joking manner.

"What are you doing?" Junpei frowned in confusion.

"The four horsemen; where are they?" Takuya laughed, unable to hold it in. "The apocalypse must be coming!"

Tense atmosphere left behind, they all headed towards the Mise section, although the conflict was still lurking at the back of their minds.

* * *

"Come on, guys!" Izumi smirked slightly as she and Chiaki walked ahead of the four boys through the Mise section, no more than one small bag in hand.

"Why did we agree to this?" Teppei panted, five bags in hand.

"Because _someone _promised to go shopping without complaining if they let him cheat in the test today," Teruo glared pointedly at Katsuharu, both boys carrying seven bags each.

"Oh shut up," Kouji sighed, ten bags in each hand. "You guys were lucky…"

"Yeah, we kind of were compared to you," Katsuharu winced slightly as he saw where the girls were going. "Oh gods no…"

"Not…" Teruo gulped. "Abercrombie and Fitch…"

"You know what? Screw this; I never promised to go shopping," Kouji growled before raising his voice. "I'm going to the arcade; Katsuharu has your bags!"

He then handed the bags that he was carrying to Katsuharu and walked off.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Teppei smirked, handing his bags to Teruo. "I'm going with him to… uh… make sure that he doesn't get lost!"

"You suck," Teruo whisper-yelled before following the ecstatic girls into the shop while Teppei and Kouji smirked at their friends' misfortune.

"So, Satomi's looking a bit round lately," Teppei muttered after a moment of silently walking towards the arcade. "Any idea what that's about? She barely eats anything."

Kouji tensed slightly, "No; why would I?"

"No need to snap," Teppei scowled. "I just thought since she's your step-mom and all, you might know why she's putting on a bit of weight; she rarely even eats."

If the rules didn't prevent him from doing so, Kouji would have hit his friend, but he wasn't anxious to get a punishment for the third time in one week.

"There's nothing going on," he snapped angrily, "so shut up and stay out of my business."

"Sorry, sorry; won't happen again," Teppei's eyes widened slightly and silence reigned over the duo until they entered the arcade.

* * *

"Aw, I'm out," Takuya whined, glaring at his empty pockets and then at the 'League of Angels' game in front of him. "Screw you harpies!"

"Come on, Takuya," Junpei sighed, hands in his pockets. "We need to go anyway; curfew is in fifteen minutes."

"Seriously?" Takuya glanced at his watch, seeing that it was quarter to eight. "Crud; I was enjoying that…"

"We can always come back tomorrow; you get your pocket money then, right?" Tomoki offered helpfully.

"True…" Takuya thought for a moment before grinning and standing up. "Okay then; let's go."

The group of four happily exited the arcade, laughing happily and just enjoying the company in general. It had been a pretty good day.

So naturally, that's when things started to go wrong.

"Onii-san!" came a shriek of terror.

Knowing that it wasn't Tomoki, Takuya looked up to see a pale, shaken, teary-eyed Shinya pounding towards him, "Ototo-san?"

"Onii-san, help," the younger Kanbara whimpered, hiding behind Takuya and his friends.

"Shinya-kun!" came another voice as two other kids, one girl with lavender hair, the other a boy with blonde hair ran towards them, equally scared. "Wait for us!"

"Get back here you little runts!"

The three kids ducked behind Takuya as five enforcers ran towards them.

Growling, Takuya stood protectively in front of them as the five halted.

"Get out of the way," one enforcer, the group's only female, warned. "It's them that have to be punished; not you."

"What did they do?" Takuya raised a challenging eyebrow.

"Took part in illegal and organised gambling," the female rattled off as the young girl – obviously being the bravest of the trio – stepped out from behind Takuya, revealing the back of her leather jacket.

Inoue, Mizu section, a hawk for a crest and code number Y820.

"W-we didn't do anything!" she stammered slightly. "We weren't even near that group!"

"You're enough trouble as it is," the female snarled as the Inoue girl – Miyako, Takuya remembered – ducked behind the goggle-head again. "Move."

"No," Kouichi growled, stepping up so that he was standing in front of the blonde boy. "You heard them; they weren't gambling."

"They broke the rules; they must be punished," the female growled. "Unless you want to take that punishment yourselves."

Kouichi shrugged, jaw clenching with determination as Junpei pushed Tomoki back into the arcade before standing forward with the duo.

"Very well," the female smirked, pulling a thin, metal object out of her belt and pressing a button on it. Instantly, a long, electrical whip-like weapon expanded out of the object.

Each of them blinked, causing her to smirk, "Not so tough now, are you? Too bad; even if you decide not to take their punishment now, you have one of your own! It is against the rules to stop an enforcer from punishing someone!"

She raised the whip, ready to bring it down on Kouichi as Miyako, Shinya and the blonde boy – Takaishi Takeru – were ushered into the arcade, only to frown in confusion and turn around when she simply felt a slight tug, as though someone were holding it back.

She was then met by a fist as it made contact with her nose.

Seeing their leader sprawled on the ground in a pool of her own blood that was flowing from her nose, the four male enforcers whipped around to see a young boy of eleven standing there with his fists clenched, leather jacket inside out so that they couldn't see his code.

"You broke the rules," one of them shakily pointed at the boy – who was practically identical to Kouichi – as he turned to glare at him, cobalt eyes narrowed.

"Guess what?" he smirked, fists still clenched. "I don't give a fuck."

He then lunged at the enforcers, easily knocking a trainee off his feet with a chop to his throat.

Then Takuya smirked, joining the fight although not as cautious about revealing his code – L693.

Between them, they managed to dispatch two of the remaining three, but the third managed to slam Takuya into the wall, putting him out of commission for a while and was holding the raven-haired boy by his throat, the young boy's feet dangling off the ground.

"Rules broken," the enforcer said. "I punish, I get rewarded."

"Hey," the enforcer turned, not having noticed Kouichi nearing him. The raven haired boy was giving him a death glare that put even the longer-haired boy's death glare to shame and easily punched him, knocking him out.

"Huh…" he blinked in surprise. "That was easier than I thought…"

He then ran over to help the other raven up as a brown-haired boy ran towards them, "Are you okay?"

"I'm… fine," he gasped for oxygen for a moment before standing up, not accepting Kouichi's help.

"Thank… gods, Kouji," the brunette panted. "We… need to go… Teruo, Katsuharu and the girls are already gone; curfew's in three minutes."

"Crud!" Kouichi groaned before motioning for the younger children to come out. "Could you guys take Inoue Miyako-chan home? She's in the Mizu section."

"Sure; we're going that way anyway," the brunette nodded before grabbing Kouji and Miyako and pulling them outside.

Takeru mumbled a hesitant thank you before running in the opposite direction as Junpei, Shinya and Tomoki helped Takuya up.

"We need to go," the elder boy stated and Kouichi nodded, making sure that the enforcers weren't severely injured before moving to follow his friends.

Not that he gave a damn about them. It was just that if no one else's, they knew Takuya's code and that would not fare well for the boy if they had a broken nose or even too severe a bruise.

Unfortunately for him, the female managed to leap up and grab him before he could leave, twisting his arm behind his back and causing him to yelp.

"Kimura, Yami section, code Z713, hm?" she smirked as Takuya ran back, having heard Kouichi yell. "Thirteen has always been an unlucky number, Kimura-kun."

Seeing Takuya, she grabbed some kind of tazer out of her belt, placing it at the side of Kouichi's neck, "Not another step."

Takuya immediately froze, causing her to smirk as she pressed the tazer further into Kouichi's skin, just where his code had been injected at his birth, "So noble, not wanting your friend to be hurt."

She shrugged and pressed a button on the tazer. The electricity surged through Kouichi's body and the raven screamed through gritted teeth, "Pity that either way, he gets punished."

She then grabbed her electrical whip again, cracking it down so that it wrapped around Takuya's wrist.

Finally, she took a deep breath… and plunged the tazer into her own neck, probably where she had been injected with a code as well.

Surprisingly, the electricity didn't seem to hurt her, and a moment later, both boys found out why.

The pain shot through them five seconds later, twenty times worse than what Kouichi had first felt. It surged through their entire bodies, crackling at their fingertips, causing their hair to stick up as they screamed in pain, barely able to stop the hot tears of pain from following down their cheeks.

Unfortunately for Takuya, the pain was double what Kouichi was feeling due to the fact that the electricity was backed up by the whip that it was running through and he was forced to his knees.

After a few minutes, the woman released the tazer, pulling back her whip with a satisfied smirk, feeling that the boys would now be easier to take back to the Batsu section for punishment. No, the electrocution was not punishment; simple subduing techniques that had recently been approved.

Growling as the electricity surge stopped, Kouichi kicked her shin, causing her to gasp and release him to grab her leg in pain. He then sprinted towards Takuya, not pausing as he grabbed his friend's wrist, pulling him after him, "Let's go!"

Slowly, the woman sat up, seething angrily as the boys left her eyesight, "I'll get you yet, Kimura."

* * *

"We won't be able to get back in time," Kouichi panted as he and Takuya sprinted through the Hikari section. "We're at least five minutes away and we only have two."

"We're not trying to get back," Takuya retorted shortly, glancing around as he ran. "We're trying to find somewhere to wait until the enforcers finish the check."

He then smirked, seeing an open door, "Perfect."

He yanked Kouichi inside the building just as a loud bell rang through the air, signalling the start of the check for people outside after curfew.

"What are you two doing here?"

Both Kouichi and Takuya whipped around to find Kouji glaring at them in an accusing manner.

"None of your business," Takuya snapped in retort as Kouji's fists clenched.

"I live here; it _is _my business."

"We couldn't get home on time," Kouichi explained nervously, casting a nervous glance at the enforcers patrolling the Hikari section outside. "We just need to wait here until the check finishes."

"You didn't seem to mind standing up to the enforcers in the Mise section," Kouji crossed his arms.

"Our friends were in danger; it was different," Kouichi scowled.

They all then froze, pressing themselves against the walls of the building as an enforcer strode past the door.

"Whatever," Kouji snorted, turning his back on them. "Just be out of here in three minutes."

"Thanks, buddy," Takuya whispered as Kouji glared at the goggle-head over his shoulder.

"I'm not doing it for you," he growled. "I'm doing it because he," he tilted his chin towards Kouichi, "helped me and I don't like being in debt to someone."

"I never said you had to pay me back," Kouichi blinked.

"Hn," Kouji shrugged one shoulder. He then walked towards the steep set of wooden stairs before looking at the duo over his shoulder again, "Just don't expect me to help you like that again."

"Why _did _you help us?" Kouichi called after him. "You don't even know us."

Kouji shrugged again before walking off.

Sighing in relief as a bell rang a moment later and the enforcers retreated, Takuya opened the door and ran outside with Kouichi following close behind.

Although nothing looked different about the raven-haired boy, he felt different.

Because although it had been a lot of hard work, and taken ages, it had been worth the effort.

He had finally built up the courage to protect his friends from the enforcers.

* * *

Enforcer Ishimaru Ayumu growled as she placed her tazer and electrical whip in the scanner, having just returned to the Batsu section.

Scowling, she turned her attention the computer to check the codes of the Kanbara and Kimura boys, the tazer having done so when she electrocuted them.

Frown deepening, she leaned closer to the computer, eyes widening as her brain confirmed what she saw, "Mother of gods…"

She quickly pushed a small button beside her, leaning towards a microphone, "Nakashima-san, we've located them."

_"How many and who?"_

"Only two, but it's a start," Ishimaru pursed her lips. "Kimura Kouichi, code Z713, and Kanbara Takuya, code L693."

* * *

_Kouji: _Wait, are Kouichi and I even brothers in this?

_DD: _Obviously; I can't take that part out!

_Kouichi: _But neither of us knows?

_DD: …_Maybe…

_Takuya: _So one of them does know?

_DD: …_Maybe…

_Chiaki: _You just don't want to give spoilers…

_DD: _Spoilers are evil! I looked up Naruto memes online and the first one I saw ruined Neji's *static*

_Cameraman: _Aw, not again! *hits camera*

_Izumi: _WHAT?!

_Tomoki: _I thought that would happen to Sakura…

_Junpei: _You weren't supposed to say it!

_DD: _Woops, my bad. You can blame the spoilers on Google for me ruining a Naruto ending for you guys.

_Cameraman: _*anime sweatdrop*

_DD: _Okay so please review and all that good stuff and we'll see you next time.

_All: _Bye!


	2. IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT UPDATES!

Hey, guys. Sorry, this isn't a chapter or even a funny commentary. Anyway, I've been overloaded with stories and been meaning to cut back, but I couldn't decide how to do it. So I recently put up a vote asking you guys to chose what story I should make my top priority. Whichever story has the most votes by early August, I will continue until I finish that story and then I will move onto another one. So if you haven't voted yet, please do so now. Oh, and I'll be MIA for about three weeks while at a writing course starting the 13th of June because... *sniff* I CAN'T BRING MY COMPUTER! WHYYYYYY?! Ahem. Anyway, that's all! I'll try and write as much of every story as possible until the results of the votes are in. Thanks! :D


End file.
